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In May 2016 we published the Unsafe Spaces report, which highlighted how under-regulation of counselling and psychotherapy allows people to practice in these fields even after being struck off for very serious misconduct. In July the report was discussed in…

Here’s a question I want to think about. If you want a counsellor or a psychotherapist, the Professional Standards Authority accredits 11 different registers for you to choose from. Suppose something goes wrong and you need to make a complaint.…

A Jungian psychotherapist who was found to have sexually abused a mentally ill client in his care has put up a new website advertising his services. Stuart Macfarlane was previously registered with the Guild of Analytical Psychologists, a member organisation…

Last month we published our report, Unsafe Spaces: Why the lack of regulation in counselling and psychotherapy is endangering vulnerable people. The report is highlighted in this month’s edition of the BACP’s magazine Therapy Today (click here and go to…

In recent months I’ve been working with Amanda Williamson on a report, Unsafe Spaces: Why the lack of regulation in counselling and psychotherapy is endangering vulnerable people. The report is available for free download from this website. The report finds…

In recent years in the UK there’s been an increasing amount of talk about something called pathological demand avoidance, or PDA. It’s described as a subtype of autism that children (and some adults) are increasingly being diagnosed with. The National…

I’ve argued on this blog in favour of making counsellors and psychotherapists protected titles in the same way as nurses, social workers, occupational therapists etc. A previous survey suggested that at least one in four counsellors or psychotherapists who were…

Following a recent controversy over conversion therapy and transgender people, I contacted the Professional Standards Authority for comment. Today I received a reply. Conversion therapy is a controversial form of psychotherapy which aims to turn gay people straight, or in…

[Trigger warnings: abuse, suicide] A bit of context to the following post. About a year ago I started writing a book on therapy abuse. The project foundered due to, well, my own laziness, quite frankly. However, before procrastination took hold…

Back in March 2014 blog reader Jo D Baker sent me an alarming bit of number-crunching. He downloaded all the striking-off orders issued by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy from October 2005 onwards. He then did Google searches…

There seems to be a running theme on this blog of psychotherapists on accredited registers who are struck off by their professional body, and simply carry on practising regardless. Here’s another one. Charles Davison, a Norfolk-based therapist was recently struck…

Thanks to Client1588 in the comments threads for pointing out to me an interesting page that appeared on the website of the British Psychoanalytic Council. The page suggests that they’re revising their complaints procedures, and this is due to BPC registrants…

I recently completed some postgraduate study in systemic and family therapy, which I did in order to help me work more effectively with the very vulnerable families that come into contact with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). What…

Thanks to Jo D Baker for pointing out this excellent two-part Radio 4 series on so-called satanic ritual abuse. Presenter David Aaronovitch describes how various professionals have made lurid claims about supposed rings of Satanists abusing and murdering children. Some…

As some of you may have noticed, some things have changed around here. Hopefully this will improve the focus and layout of the site. The first thing you’ll notice is that the Not So Big Society has been retitled Unsafe…

And so the contest reached its conclusion last night. After months of me sarcastically livetweeting the national selections (I do wonder how many unfollows I got as a result of that), then flying out to watch the semifinals in Vienna,…

This second review of the contest comes from my home back in Wales, having negotiated a flight, the circle of Hades that is the M25, and the Bank Holiday traffic to get back from Bratislava. I watched the Jury Show…

I’m currently sitting in a very pleasant hotel room in Bratislava, Slovakia, having got in at 2am last night from watching the first semi-final of the Eurovision live in Vienna. I’ve also been catching up some of the highlights on…

Given that I’ve blogged about serious sexual misconduct cases in counselling and psychotherapy, @sameihuda on Twitter drew my attention to this article in BPS Research Digest. It deals with the tricky topic of when therapists develop a sense of sexual…

On Thursday night I settled down to watch Channel 4’s new TV series, Born Naughty, which examines the lives of young children with behavioural problems. To declare an interest most of my professional background is in Child and Adolescent Mental…